There ain't no samurai, there are few geisha, Japanese are not the most polite people in the world. In practice, there is no special love or care for nature, nor is Japan uniquely unique. Sorry, but the sugar-coated fantasyland-Japan of Edwin O. Reischauer et al does not exist--if it ever did.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

How different it is to be actually teaching---or as close as one gets in Japan---English as a foreign language again. I have taken on more classes with my old company where I can actually use some of my education and some accepted teaching principles instead of trying to glob through Berlitz' nonsense using their "method" which they have difficulty defining themselves. I actually know my students! I know what and why I am teaching something, and so do they. How rare that was at Berlitz. Ask a Berlitz teacher why they are teaching something from the Berlitz text---especially the "pronunciation" material and see what the answer is. Nobody knows.